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StarCraft II
|released=''Wings of Liberty'': July 27, 2010 Heart of the Swarm: March 12, 2013.Blizzard Entertainment. 2012-11-13. Heart of the Swarm Arrives March 12, 2013 — Presales NOW LIVE. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2012-11-13. Legacy of the Void: November 10, 2015 |genre=Real Time Strategy |engine=Completely new engineKarune. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 39: Map Maker Series. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-05-28. |modes=Singleplayer, Multiplayer |ratings= |requirements=Internet connection (to install)Gunnar Petzall. 2009-08-17. StarCraft II Developers Talk Single Player. Inc.Gamers. Accessed 2009-08-28. ---- Full requirements: ---- *PC ** Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7 ** 2.6 GHz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor ** 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7 ** 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT or ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card or better ** 1024x768 minimum display resolution ** 12 GB free hard space ** Broadband connection ---- *Mac® OS X 10.5.8 or newer **Intel® Processor **NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT or ATI Radeon® X1600 or better **12 GB available HD space **2 GB Ram **DVD-ROM drive **Broadband Internet connection **1024X720 minimum display resolution ---- *PC Recommended System Requirements: **Windows Vista/Windows 7 **Dual Core 2.4GHz Processor **2 GB RAM **512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon HD 3870 or better ---- *MAC Recommended System Requirements: **Intel® Core 2 Duo processor **4 GB system RAM **NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT or ATI Radeon® HD 4670 or betterJohn Callahan. 2010-07-15. Final StarCraft II retail version system requirements revealed. Big Download News. Accessed 2010-07-16. |platforms=Macintosh OSXChris Sigaty. 2009-12-04. Interview with Chris Sigaty. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2009-12-23. |platforms=Macintosh OSXChris Sigaty. 2009-12-04. Interview with Chris Sigaty. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2009-12-23. Windows XP, Windows Vista |input=Mouse, keyboard }} StarCraft II is a sequel to the real-time strategy game StarCraft, announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard World Wide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea.Onyett, Charles. 2007-05-18. IGN: Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational Begins IGN.com, Retrieved 2007-05-19.Park, Andrew. 2007-05-18. GameSpot: Starcraft II warps into Seoul. Gamespot. Retrieved 2007-05-19. It is set to be released as a trilogy.Mike Farley. 2008-10-10. StarCraft II Single Player Is A Trilogy! Kotaku.com Accessed 2008-10-10.Eduardo Vasconcellos. 2008-10-10. Blizzcon 08: StarCraft II Split Into Three Games. IGN. Accessed 2008-10-10. StarCraft II is free to play; multiplayer and the Wings of Liberty campaign are free, and all Co-op Commanders free until level 5.StarCraft II Going Free-To-Play, Explained Battle.net Accessed 2017-11-03. Internet access is not required to play the gameGunnar Petzall. 2009-06-29. StarCraft 2 page 2. Inc.Gamers. Accessed 2009-06-29. but is required for installation. StarCraft II is available through digital distribution.Webnet. 2009-08-17. Rob Pardo Q&A - Battle.net, Wings of Liberty, and more. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2009-08-29. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty sold 1.5 million copies in its first two daysJohnny Cullen. 2010-08-03. StarCraft II sells 1.5 million units in first 48 hours VG 24/7. Accessed 2010-09-01. and 3 million copies in its first month.Johnny Cullen. 2010-09-01. StarCraft II sells 3 million in first month on sale. VG 24/7. Accessed 2010-09-01. It was the best-selling game of July 2010.Johnny Cullen. 2010-08-13. July NPD 2010 – StarCraft II best-selling software with 721k VG 24/7. Accessed 2010-09-01. Blizzard intends to continue support StarCraft II years after release, in a similar manner to the StarCraft patches, which have been updated more than ten years after the release of the original StarCraft.Frank Pearce, Leord, AusGamers. 2008-09-19. AusGamers Video Interview with Frank Pearce. IncGamers/AusGamers. Accessed 2008-09-19. As of 2011, there are no plans to port StarCraft II to any console platform.2011-10-27, BlizzCon 2011: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm FAQ. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2011-11-06 Overview The game is split into three separate self-contained installment products. #''StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the terran campaign #StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, the zerg campaign #StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, the protoss campaignMike Farley. 2008-10-10. StarCraft II Single Player Is A Trilogy! ''Kotaku.com Accessed 2008-10-10.Eduardo Vasconcellos. 2008-10-10. Blizzcon 08: StarCraft II Split Into Three Games. IGN. Accessed 2008-10-10. Blizzard Entertainment chose this route due to the challenges they faced creating the campaigns. Through a trilogy, they can create more content per campaign, such as movies, sets, props, characters, missions (including Easter egg missions) and so forth. Each character has their own arcs, missions and dialog.Rob Pardo. 2008-10-10. Starcraft 2 Trilogy Announcement. Wegame.com Accessed 2008-10-12. The story has been designed so that no previous knowledge of StarCraft is required to enjoy it.Inside look at Blizzard's upcoming Starcraft II, OCregister. Accessed on 2009-07-23 In-universe the campaigns occur in sequence,StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-04-04. StarCraft II Lore Panel. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed on 2009-05-12 each campaign beginning immediately after its predecessor.2007-17-11, StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 46. Karune. Accessed on 2008-18-11 Each campaign has 26-30 missions in total (including branching missions) and a set ending, rather than a cliff-hanger. All three races were completely developed for the multiplayer skirmish mode. Expansions Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void are considered to be expansion setsKarune. 2008-10-14. StarCraft II Trilogy FAQ. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-10-17. and are priced as such.Webnet. 2009-08-17. Rob Pardo Q&A - Battle.net, Wings of Liberty, and more. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2009-08-29. Rob Pardo later described them as expansions from a multiplayer standpoint (much like Brood War) but sequels from a campaign standpoint.Russ Frushtick. 2010-08-23. Blizzard Gives An Update On 'StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm'. MTV Multiplayer. Accessed 2010-08-24. As of the announcement of the release date of Heart of the Swarm, the cost of the first expansion is $40 USD for the standard edition, and $55 USD for the deluxe edition.Rick Marshall. 2012-11-13. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm arrives March 12 in ‘Standard Edition’ and ‘Deluxe Edition’. Gaming Trends. Accessed 2012-11-13. Each upgrades and expand multiplayer content in addition to containing a campaign, such as the possibility of new units, abilities and structures. New units available in the expansions can only be accessed if a player buys the expansion. Each product has upgrades to the multiplayer, "that's the whole point of the expansion or the second part".Chris Sigaty, Tracy John. 2009-10-11. Producer Breaks Down Key 'StarCraft II' Trilogy Details, Defends Decision For Split. MTV Multiplayer. Accessed 2009-09-20. Each race has been enhanced in some way.Dustin Browder et al. Världsexklusiv Starcraft 2-intervju! (17:25). Press 2 Play. Accessed 2009-06-17. Mission Packs It was stated that StarCraft II would continue to receive downloadable campaign content post-''Legacy of the Void'' in the form of "mission packs". The first of these, Nova Covert Ops, is a series of 9 missions released over a trio of installments. The first three missions were released on March 29, 2016,2016-22-03, http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/20063101/patch-32-preview-nova-covert-ops-mission-pack-1-3-22-2016 Battle.Net, accessed on 2016-04-25 and the second three on August 2, 2016.2016-07-20. StarCraft Twitter. Twitter. Accessed 2016-03-15. After the release of the final part of the mission pack, fan reaction will be gauged to determine whether more mission packs will be released, or whether Blizzard should work on a new RTS game.2015-11-08, GS News Update: Blizzard Say Warcraft 4 And StarCraft 3 Development "Depends On the Players". GameSpot, accessed on 2015-17-11 At Gamescon 2016, Blizzard stated that they have no plans for additional mission packs moving into 2017.2016-10-04 SC2 Singleplayer No More Mission Packs PCGamesn.com accessed on 2016-10-04 As of BlizzCon 2016, they are not working on any more mission packs.2016-11-05. BlizzCon 2016: Foundations for the Future. Youtube. Accessed 2016-11-05. The reason for the shift was that there were observable spikes in Co-op Missions and Versus in terms of player engagement, hence the shift to cultivate these modes. Blizzard is not currently working on any new campaigns (as of BlizzCon 2017). Storyline Story and Lore The trilogy takes place four years after StarCraft: Brood War.Park, Andrew. 2007-05-20. Blizzard outlines StarCraft II gameplay. Gamespot.Metzen, Chris; Chambers, Andy; StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-04-03. BlizzCon 2007 StarCraft Lore Panel Editorial. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-05-18. The storyline was written by Chris Metzen and Andy Chambers, concurrently with The Dark Templar Saga which was written by Christie Golden. Each of the three campaigns – terran (Wings of Liberty), zerg (Heart of the Swarm) and protoss (Legacy of the Void) – has been released as separate products.Mike Farley. 2008-10-10. StarCraft II Single Player Is A Trilogy! Kotaku.com Accessed 2008-10-10.Eduardo Vasconcellos. 2008-10-10. Blizzcon 08: StarCraft II Split Into Three Games. IGN. Accessed 2008-10-10. The trilogy has an overall arc of escalation, beginning small with Wings of Liberty (rebellion against the Dominion), escalating to Heart of the Swarm (where Kerrigan commands the fate of an entire race) and culminating in Legacy of the Void, in the final battle of the Protoss against Amon.2015-03-06, PAX East 2015 Blizzard Panel | Blizzplanet (1/2). YouTube, accessed on 2015-03-22 StarCraft II takes place both on new worlds and on worlds that appeared in the original game. Char is back as is Mar Sara. One of the new worlds is Bel'Shir, a jungle-covered protoss-colonized moon that was a religious retreat until it was attacked by the zerg; it now houses many ruined temples. Other new worlds include Redstone III and Monlyth. Jim Raynor continues his adventures along with Kerrigan, Zeratul and Artanis. The campaign can be played without an internet connection, although Blizzard prefers that it be played online (to enable achievements and special save game features).Michael Graf. 2010-03-25. Starcraft 2 - Exclusive interview with lead designer Dustin Browder. Gamestar. Accessed 2010-03-27. Precursor Events # The "evil empire" of the Terran Dominion is the political, economic and military powerhouse of the known terran factions in StarCraft II. The Kel-Morian Combine and Umojan Protectorate are currently the only other sovereign governments capable of maintaining independence from the Dominion, which is trying to assimilate terran colonies and consolidate its power. # The Swarm, under the command of the Queen of Blades, have pulled back to Char and been quiet for four years. No one knew what Kerrigan is planning as her forces kill all enemy scouting parties. Kerrigan herself says the zerg have evolved and thrived during this period, and are becoming "much, much more, for the final metamorphosis has only just begun."2008-03-18. Zerg Reveal Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-03-21. # Raynor's Raiders are the main playable terran faction, and Jim Raynor is referenced as the central character of the terran campaign. Raynor's Raiders have been outlawed by the Terran Dominion. Arcturus Mengsk has continually hounded them, but refused to assassinate Raynor as that could make him a martyr.2008-01-28. Biography (Terran, Jim Raynor). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-01-28. # The United Earth Directorate forces were destroyed by Kerrigan's zerg (though an enclave of surviving exiled companies are still around somewhere in the Sector).Blizzard Entertainment Staff. 2010-07-24. The Story So Far: The Brood War (page 6). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2010-07-24. Mythology An overarching thread involving the xel'naga and rumors of hybrid creatures weaves through the campaigns. There are many connections between the StarCraft: Ghost franchise and StarCraft II. For instance, Gabriel Tosh, a character from StarCraft: Ghost Academy, appears on the Hyperion in Wings of Liberty and serves as a connection between the two storylines.pR0gR4m3R. 2008-10-16. [BlizzCon08 - StarCraft2 Lore Panel 2/4]. Youtube. Accessed 2008-10-18. The StarCraft: Ghost storyline, especially parts revolving around the Terran Dominion, acted as a building block for StarCraft II.Rob Pardo et al. 2009-07-02. IGTV: StarCraft 2 Developer Interview. Inc.Gamers. Accessed 2009-08-01. Other Races The xel'naga fits into the story "in a rather epic tale" and form part of the backbone of the trilogy.Mike Schramm, Chris Metzen, Andy Chambers. 2008-10-12. BlizzCon 2008: Starcraft II lore panel. Joystiq. Accessed 2008-10-12. Units StarCraft II only features the three original races in standard multiplayer: protoss, terran, and zerg. While a fourth race was not introduced, hybrid were considered and dropped as a fourth race for the game.2019-05-22. Twitch Rivals: StarCraft II. Twitch.tv. Accessed 2019-06-01. Some units have animations such as air banking, starting and stopping.CoTweet. 2010-02-02. The #StarCraft2 programming team has been busy working on some new unit movement (air banking/start/stop) animations. #SCUpdate. Twitter (StarCraft). Accessed 2010-02-02. StarCraft II retains some units from the original game, although some of these units have been given new abilities. Due to story events from the previous game, some units have been phased out or replaced. For example, the conquest of the protoss homeworld of Aiur has prevented the creation of more dragoons – the transplanted forms of protoss warriors in exoskeletons – resulting in the remaining dragoons to be redesigned with different weaponry and a shield that absorbs heavy damage and renamed to "immortals".Blizzard Entertainment. 2007-05-19. Immortal. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-06. Retrieved 19 May 2007 The number of units in the game did not significantly change from Brood War. For every new unit added, one "underused" unit has been removed.Rausch, Allen 'Delsyn'. 2007-05-20. Gamespy Panel Report. Gamespy. Retrieved 2007-05-21.Edwards, Tim. 2007-11-07. Terran-forming. CVG PC Gamer. Accessed 2007-11-08. Gameplay The StarCraft II experience places emphasis on three playable races locked in a cinematic intra-galactic warfare through an epic story Campaign, best-in-class multiplayer Versus competition, and collaborative Co-op Missions.https://starcraft2.com/en-us/ There are six levels of AI script difficulty: very easy, easy, medium, hard, very hard and insane. The insane AI mode is the only one which "cheats".Deep.Thought. 2009-08-18. StarCraft II Single Player Fact Sheet. StarCraft Wire. Accessed 2009-09-07. StarCraft II features 20 unique tilesets, including the Shattered City environment.Yup, there will be several new tilesets in StarCraft II, including the Shattered City one mentioned in the post above. These aren't quite ready to be revealed yet, but are definitely worth the wait. Karune. 2008-09-26. Karune: new tilesets? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-09-26. Achievements Campaign Co-op Versus Customs Custom games allow "handicaps" for different players. This is set before the match. Custom games give players the ability to play against chosen players or AI on the maps of their choosing. These custom maps allow players to set map type, game speed, AI difficulty and expansion level. AI can be customized to favor different builds and strategies. Mods may be added to these custom maps to change the game experience while still giving the player the ability to play on different maps. Collections Collections allow players to customize their battle.net profile and race's army. From here, players can change their unit's skins, their consoles, announcers, portraits, decals and sprays. This menu also gives players the option to see what emoticons and /dance animations they have unlocked. For 3v3 and 4v4 games, only four skins can be set per race. This can be set in the "Large Format Games" box. Replays Replays are available in StarCraft II as well, for both singleplayer and multiplayer games. Multiplayer games include menus, leaderboards and overlays displaying statistics. StarCraft II features seven observer modes: *None (no menus) *Resources (gathered resources and supply count) *Spending (on economy, tech and units) *Unit (number of units) *Production (units and buildings being created) *Army (resources spent on the army) *APM. These are available in "real time". In Observer Mode, a viewer can watch in the "old style" or in a newer "first person view" in which they see the camera view, selections and commands issued from the player's viewpoint. An observer won't be able to see the actual mouse clicks, however. At the end of the game, build orders, an army graph showing the size of the army over time and a resource graph showing income over time can be displayed. Battle.net Blizzard Entertainment released a new version of battle.net with StarCraft II. Metagame Functionality Frank Pearce said they wouldn't be able to implement all plans by the time StarCraft II launches, but they can add more features to battle.net "as we go".Phil Elliott, Frank Pearce. 2008-09-02. Blizzard's Frank Pearce. GamesIndustry.biz. Accessed 2008-09-02. StarCraft II does not have LAN support.Frank Pearce, Tamer Asfahani. 2010-05-28. Blizzard's Frank Pearce Interview Page 4. Inc.Gamers. Accessed 2010-06-07. Internet access is not be required to play the gameGunnar Petzall. 2009-06-29. StarCraft 2 page 2. Inc.Gamers. Accessed 2009-06-29. but is required for installation. Blizzard expects requiring internet access for some features to not be a problem, since computers come standard with internet connections now (unlike when StarCraft came out).Dustin Browder, Dave Remo. 2009-10-26. The Design of StarCraft II (page 3). Gamasutra. Accessed 2009-10-26. Players of StarCraft II and Diablo III share "gamer achievements", adding up to a Blizzard Level, in a similar manner to the system in World of Warcraft.Tracey John. 2008-08-01. Blizzard Plans To Track Gamer Achievements Across ‘WoW,’ ‘Starcraft’ And ‘Diablo’. MTV Multiplayer. Accessed 2008-08-01. While achievements can be accessed in the single-player game, this is only possible if the gamer is connected to battle.net. Players does not require internet access to play single-player games, but they are encouraged to do so. The game did not launch with the ability to display replays to multiple users.Rob Pardo et al. 2009-07-02. IGTV: StarCraft 2 Developer Interview. Inc.Gamers TV. Accessed 2009-07-04. Teaching the Game Blizzard intends to train new players for the multiplayer game, eventually transforming casual gamers into hardcore gamers. The campaign does not act as a tutorial for teaching game mechanics. Instead, the game includes pre-recorded tutorials which players can watch, as well as "challenges", small missions which train players in specific tasks suited for multi-players games such as efficient resource gathering. A challenge would last 5-10 minutes and the player would get a score. Challenges cover topics important to multiplayer, such as resourcing, hotkeys and counters. In addition, players receives help on why they won or lost a game. There are tutorials for protoss and zerg which players can view before playing them on battle.net. Blizzard expected players who start on Battle.net to play cooperatively vs the AI, then move into team play before finally graduating to 1 vs 1. Blizzard considers team play less hectic, as the teammates can support each other. Achievements are used to direct players along this path. Blizzard expects players to play 30-60 hours of the game before they begin playing 1 vs 1.Dustin Browder, Adam Biessener. 2010-04-08. An Extensive Interview With StarCraft II's Design Director (page 2). Game Informer. Accessed 2010-04-09. By 2012 Blizzard changed its training techniques. As of patch 2.0.4 StarCraft II comes with a training mode. The training mode shows four windows going left to right—Training, Versus A.I., Unranked, and Ranked.Blizzard Entertainment. 2013-02-07. Heart of the Swarm Video: Ways to Play. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2013-02-08. Each race has three training missions.Michael McWhertor. 2013-01-23. Blizzard's plan to make StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm easier on newcomers. Polygon. Accessed 2013-02-01. For each there are three stages. The player is given simple goals against an AI opponent. Stage 1 goes at normal speed and gives ground units. Stage 2 gives more advanced ground units and increases the game speed to fast. At stage 3, all units are available and the speed is set to faster.Blizzard Entertainment. 2013-02-07. Heart of the Swarm Video: Ways to Play. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2013-02-08. The player can then play against the AI either singly or in groups.Blizzard Entertainment. 2013-02-07. Heart of the Swarm Video: Ways to Play. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2013-02-08. A matchmaking vs AI system has been introduced, where players matches against an AI level that matches their skills.Shindigs and GHOSTCLAW. 2013-01-22. Heart of the Swarm Preview - (22.01.13). Teamliquid. Accessed 2013-01-23. This is called the AI Challenge Mode.James Cullinane. 2013-01-22. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm: singleplayer hands-on (page 2). Gameplanet. Accessed 2013-02-01. This is determined by three placement matches.Blizzard Entertainment. 2013-02-07. Heart of the Swarm Video: Ways to Play. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2013-02-08. Next is Unranked Play, which do not affect a player's ladder ranking. Matchmaking is still be used to pair off players. The game uses the ranked ladder rating if the player already has one, but it begins to diverge at this point.Blizzard Entertainment. 2013-02-07. Heart of the Swarm Video: Ways to Play. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2013-02-08. Finally there is the traditional Ranked Play. This gives access to the ladder and leagues.Blizzard Entertainment. 2013-02-07. Heart of the Swarm Video: Ways to Play. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2013-02-08. MLG Leagues :Main article: Leagues Leagues are part of the tool system making multiplayer StarCraft II available for all skill levels, along with the automated matchmaking system. There are copper, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond leagues. There is also a "safer" Practice League, which would involve players of lower skill levels playing on maps designed to prevent rushing at "normal" rather than a faster game speed. Blizzard intends to take steps to prevent "smurfing", when higher-skilled players participate in battle.net games they shouldn't be and disrupt other players.Dustin Browder, Destructoid. 2009-06-29. Destructoid Interview. Destructoid. Accessed 2009-06-29. Media StarCraft II features new soundtracks by Glenn Stafford, the soundtrack composer for StarCraft. In addition, edited versions of the StarCraft soundtracks are found in StarCraft II.Browder, Dustin and Shadowie. 2009-05-01. Fan Site Q&A #3 - SC2Pod. SC2pod. Accessed 2009-05-01. The trilogy's lore lore is supported by several novels authorized by Blizzard Entertainment. The Dark Templar Saga serves as a prologue to StarCraft II, I, Mengsk is a tie-in to StarCraft IIMcNeill, Graham. 2007-07-05. Monkey Gland Sauce. Graham Mcneill's Weblog. Accessed 2008-07-26. and the StarCraft: Ghost novel Spectres also served as a tie-in.DeCandido, Keith R. A. 2008-05-10. [http://kradical.livejournal.com/1270648.html more StarCraft]. KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life: ramblings from a mad fedora'd writer Accessed 2008-05-10. ''StarCraft: Ghost'' in StarCraft II Nova and Gabriel Tosh, the latter introduced in the Ghost Academy graphic novel series, feature in a subset of missions centered around spectres. Tosh hires Jim Raynor to collect jorium and terrazine to assist in the production of spectres,Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, The Devil's Playground (in English). 2010-07-27.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Welcome to the Jungle (in English). 2010-07-27. and the player may ultimately either side with Tosh and break Tosh's fellow spectres out of New Folsom Prison,Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Breakout (in English). 2010-07-27. or side with Nova to kill Tosh and destroy his spectre production facilities.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Ghost of a Chance (in English). 2010-07-27. The player receives the ability to use either spectres or ghosts depending on who they side with. Horace Warfield also factors prominently into the later stages of the campaign, being the general accompanying Valerian Mengsk. However, there is no mention of his connection to Nova or spectres. A Nova-centered cinematic appears on a TV screen in StarCraft II.Blizzcon 2008 StarCraft 2 Gameplay Panel Demo Part 2/2. Blizzard Entertainment\YouTube. Accessed on 2008-12-11 Certain assets from StarCraft: Ghost, such as interior installation art, appear in StarCraft II.Samwise Didier. 2009-08-25. StarCraft: Ghost Lives On In StarCraft II. Kotaku. Accessed 2009-09-03. Technologies StarCraft II supports the DirectX 9 (Pixel Shader 2.0) software. It is fully compatible with DirectX 10 as well, which provides access to enhanced graphical effects.Schleicher, Keith. Interview with Blizzard's Kevin Yu on StarCraft II Gaming Trend. Accessed 2007-10-01. The game is also compatible with DirectX 11, but it don't support features specific to it.Cydra. 2009-11-17. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 55. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-11-17. Source The Mac client utilizes OpenGL, instead. The game also features the Havok physics engine, allowing realistic interaction with the environment, such as "debris roll(ing) down a ramp". The game supports a variety of video cards; old cards like ATI Radeon 9800/NVIDIA GeForce FX to ATI Radeon HD 4800s and NVIDIA GeForce G200s are also supported."This meant supporting a wide range of hardware, from ATI RadeonTM 9800/NVIDIA GeForceTM FX’s to the ATI RadeonTM HD 4800s and NVIDIA GeForceTM G200s, targeting maximum utilization on each different GPU platform." StarCraft II: Effects and Techniques. Dominic Filion and Rob McNaughton. Ed. N. Tatarchuk. StarCraft II: Effects and Techniques. In Advances in Real‐Time Rendering in 3D Graphics and Games Course – SIGGRAPH 2008. Accessed 2008-08-20. StarCraft II supports screen resolutions from 5:4 to 16:9. Wider screens has a slightly larger viewable range.Browder, Dustin and Shadowie. 2009-05-01. Fan Site Q&A #3 - SC2Pod. SC2pod. Accessed 2009-05-01.Karune. 2008-01-11. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 25. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-01-11. The game supports wide screens but not multiple monitors.Karune. 2009-01-22. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 48. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-01-22. The minimum resolution is 1024 x 768 x 32 bits.Dustin Browder, Lipton, Karune. 2009-04-22. The Official STARFEEDER Starcraft 2 Q&A. Starfeeder. Accessed 2009-04-22. StarCraft II supports a windowed mode. Game unit models feature about 2000 polygons.Samwise Didier, Dave Berggren. WWI SC2 Art Panel. Brightcove. Accessed 2008-08-01. During game design, 3DSMax was used to create low-polygon unit models, MudBox for high-polygon models, and Photoshop was used to edit textures.Browder, Dustin. (Cavez). 2007-10-29. Question for Karune/Someone who knows. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-11-10. Gore can be disabled, but doing so requires restarting the game.Karune. 2007-10-29. Re: Gore Disabling. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-10-30. StarCraft II is written in 32-bit code but supports 64-bit systems. It has multi-core capability.Chris Sigaty, Samwise Didier. Blizzcon 2008 StarCraft 2 Press Q&A. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2008010-12. The game supports lighting effects, including a light/dark cycle used in some missions. Voice chat is enabled over battle.net, but the audio is not available in replays.Karune. 2009-05-27. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 51. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-05-27. Galaxy Map Editor The game comes with a map editor. The StarCraft II Map Editor improves upon the World Editor from Warcraft III in every way.Karune. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 39: Map Maker Series. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-05-28. Publishing custom maps requires a Premium account. Blizzard supports the modding community with theirs Arcade program. There are plans to allow to sell some mods the future.Blizzard Entertainment staff, Greg Canessa. 2010-02-009. Battle.net Preview. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2010-02-09. Startools Startools, a proprietary toolset, is included with Galaxy Map Editor. Startools lets modders design and create doodads.Park, Andrew. 2007-05-19. Blizzard talks Starcraft II art design. Gamespot. Development Conception Some discrepencies exist as to when development on StarCraft II began. Reportedly, development on the game began shortly after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne in July 2003.Stapleton, Dan. "StarCraft II." PC Gamer Magazine 164 (August 2007): 20-30. The game reportedly entered full production c. 2004,"We did break ground on “StarCraft II” in 2003, but wasn’t in full production for another year or so." Rob Pardo, Kristin Kalning. 2007-05-31. Can Blizzard top itself with 'StarCraft II?' MSNBC. Accessed 2010-02-08. codenamed "Medusa."2018-03-04, MIKE MORHAIME ON 20 YEARS OF STARCRAFT ESPORTS. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2018-03-11 However, The Cinematic Art of StarCraft states that the game only started to be discussed in 2005.Brooks, Robert. The Cinematic Art of StarCraft (hardcover). Blizzard Entertainment, October 18, 2018. The development was ramped up shortly after the production of World of Warcraft which was when Blizzard Entertainment hired Dustin Browder: March 14, 20052007-07-20. StarCraft 2: Interview mit Dustin Browder (in German) GameStar. Accessed 2007-07-22. to the position of senior designer.Mielke, James. 2007-07-27. Protoss for a Day. 1up.com Accessed 2007-07-28. He later became the lead designer.2007-05-19. Gameplay Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12. The conception was for a re-imagining of the original game, having more units but staying true to its spirit.2010-02-17, Medievaldragon, interviews Starcraft II Team celebrating closed beta launch (Rob Pardo & Chris Sigaty). Blizzplanet, accessed on 2010-02-18 However, the developers didn't want each race's unit count to get too big. It was decided that if a unit was brought back from the original, another unit would have to be cut. Story was considered, but the main focus was to remake the multiplayer of the original game in 3D. Blizzard designed the races around "cool units," rather than having specific plans for the races.Dustin Browder, Adam Biessener. 2010-04-08. An Extensive Interview With StarCraft II's Design Director. Game Informer. Accessed 2010-04-09. The developers knew they had to create new units and buildings, as well as provide new gameplay approaches for each race, but also stay true to the setting's core mechanics. The game was designed specifically around competitive, skill-based e-sports.2018-04-03, EVOLUTION COMPLETE: REIMAGINING CLASSIC STARCRAFT UNITS FOR STARCRAFT II. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2018-03-07 Blizzard discussed the possibility of a fourth race early on in the game's development. However, the development team felt that had a finite amount of ideas and wanted to make sure that they focused on the best ideas for the existing three playable races rather than diluting those ideas across four races. Over development, the idea of bringing in a fourth race made "less and less sense." It has been indicated that the United Earth Directorate was considered for "fourth power" status within the game's framework. In August 2008, Frank Pearce stated that adding a fourth fully playable race would likely be discussed if Blizzard decided to make an expansion for the game, three months before the expansions were announced.2008-29-08. Pearce: Fourth StarCraft II race may be added by expansion. Videogaming 247. Accessed on 2008-30-08 New technology was created to support the larger number of 3D units on-screen, allowing artists and other designers to update vehicles, buildings, and pieces of scenery, piece by piece. Subsequent Development When development on the game began, artwork from the original StarCraft was looked at. However, very little source art from the original was preserved. The artists were given free reign to iterate on the original designs.2016-11-12, BlizzCon 2016: StarCraft Interview with Allen Dilling. YouTube, accessed on 2016-11-16 The game's multiplayer was focused on, with multiplayer in playable form before work began on the campaign. Multiplayer was fully playable by the time of the game's announcement.2018-12-02, 20 YEARS OF STARCRAFT: AN IGN RETROSPECTIVE. IGN, accessed on 2018-12-03 The game was updated approximately once a week during development.Also remember that the game changes in balance or design about once a week. This means it's VERY easy to forget to do something in the middle of a heated game. So our games are just not going to be as fierce as current Broodwar games until sometime during (or even after) Beta when everything settles down a bit. Cavez (Dustin Browder). 2009-01-08. Introducing StarCraft II Battle Reports (page 5). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-01-09. Addressing rumors, Karune stated that StarCraft II was intended to be released before Diablo III. Karune. 2009-09-10. StarCraft II will be available before Diablo 3. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-09-10. Blizzard made the very first publicly playable demo of StarCraft II available at BlizzCon 2007.Main page of the official Blizzard website. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed June 21, 2007. StarCraft II was featured at E3 2007, July 11, 2007.Karune. 2007-07-09. Starcraft 2 @ E3 2007!. Battle.net StarCraft General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-07-09. Only a demo was viewable, not a playable version. StarCraft II was featured at BlizzCon 2007, August 3 to 4, 2007. Terrans and Protoss were playable. The same two races were playable at GenCon Indy.Medievaldragon. 2007-08-21. Starcraft II Gencon Indy 2007 Video. Blizzplanet. Accessed 2007-08-22. The game was available at the 2007 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, August 22 to 26, 2007.2007-08-20. Blizzard Entertainment® Showcases Playable Titles at Leipzig Games Convention Blizzard Entertainment Accessed 2007-08-20. The game was still in internal alpha/pre-alpha in August, 2008.Jon Wilcox, Frank Pearce, Bob Colayco. 2008-08-29. StarCraft II Q&A Feature. TVG Accessed 2008-08-30.Onyett, Charles, Frank Pearce. 2008-08-20. GC 2008: StarCraft II Progress Report: The process of fine-tuning continues. IGN. Accessed 2008-08-20. Two weeks before BlizzCon 2008, the entire company played StarCraft II, an important milestone.Chris Sigaty, Samwise Didier. Blizzcon 2008 StarCraft 2 Press Q&A. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2008010-12. The exposition match played at BlizzCon 2008 was referred to as an "alpha" version but also a "pre-alpha" versionBlizzcon Video Archive (Sonkie vs Yellow). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-10-19. and in Battle Report II it was referred to as an alpha version.Dustin Browder, Robert Simpson, Matt Cooper, David Kim. 2008-12-19. Battle Report (2). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2009-04-16. Mike Morhaime expected the game to launch by the end of 2009"There will be a Starcraft II beta test later this summer, and Morhaime offers to get anyone in attendance into the program. Morhaime expects to launch Starcraft II by the end of the year, though also notes that it will only ship once the game is done." Mike Morhaime, Brendan Sinclair. 2009-05-31. Starcraft II by end of 2009, Call of Duty expanding to new genres. Gamespot. Accessed 2009-06-01. but this has been delayed to at least 2010 to give adequate time to prepare Battle.net.Cydra. 2009-08-05. StarCraft II Update. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-08-05. Approaching Beta A StarCraft II beta key was released at BlizzCon 2008.BlizzCon 2008: Day One Wrap-Up. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-10-17. In February 2009 Blizzard COO Chris Sams said the beta was "months away".Michael McWhertor. 2009-02-11. StarCraft II, Next Gen Battle.net Betas "In The Next Few Months". Kotaku. Accessed 2009-02-11. That same month Dustin Browder addressed criticisms that the beta was taking too long to announce, saying they Blizzard still needed to do work on the campaign and on battle.net, and that the beta would be announced when they had an idea what the release date would be. He also believed the beta would be announced in 2009.I see lots of questions about timelines. Here is a little FAQ. Question: "Why hasn't Blizzard released the Beta?" or "WTF have they been working on, I played it at Blizzcon last year and I thought it was done!" Answer: Solo campaign is under heavy construction as is Battlenet. When these things have enough work done that we know when our release date is going to be with strong confidence we will announce the Beta. Unless something crazy happens, the Beta is going to happen this year. Question: "Why don't you just give us your target dates if you don't know the final date? We promise, we won't get mad if Blizzard misses target dates." Answer: Let's be realistic. Our target dates are not something we hit more than half the time. Putting those out there would be pretty close to lying to the fans. We are not going to do that. We want to be able to give good info, not info that we know is suspect. We'll give target dates when we think it is very likely that we will hit them. Question: When can we have the next Battle Report? Answer: We were waiting on getting some improved graphics in (some of the new stuff looked REALLY rough). That was finished last week and we are now playing and looking for a good game. Once we get that game the process is reasonably quick to get it out. Once we go Beta, you guys can do these and put them up. When that happens I'm sure there will be a ton of them and I'm sure the quality of the games played and the announcing will go way up. Question: "I notice that you haven't actually given us any dates...." Answer: Yeah. Sorry. We don't want to lie about the Beta, and we don't even want to lie about the next Battle Report. When we know a date (for anything) for certain, we'll let you know. Hang in there. We're in the final stretch. Cavez. 2009-02-16. Some Updates. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-16. In August 2009 Blizzard announced that StarCraft II would not be released in 2009, and would instead be released in the first half of 2010.Cydra. 2009-08-05. StarCraft II Update. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2009-08-05. The StarCraft II beta was announced in February 2010 and released on the 17th of that month.Avarius. 2010-02-17. StarCraft II Beta Is Now Live! Battle.net StarCraft II Beta Forum. Accessed 2010-02-17. The beta closed on July 19.Lylirra. 2010-07-16.StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Beta Test Draws to a Close. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2010-07-17.Zarhym. 2010-07-20. What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2010-07-20. It had a day one patch.John Callaham. 2010-03-09. StarCraft II to get Day 1 patch at launch. Big Download News. Accessed 2010-07-06. As of August 2011 the "Starter Edition" became available. This gives access to the first three missions of Wings of Liberty plus either The Evacuation or Smash and Grab (player's choice), the first two challenges: Tactical Command and , access to terrans in Single-Player vs AI and Custom Games in the following maps: Discord IV, High Orbit, The Shattered Temple, Xel'Naga Caverns and the custom map StarJeweled, subject to change over time. Achievements and campaign progress are saved in case the player upgrades to the full version of Wings of Liberty ''or any other chapter.Blizzard Entertainment. 2011-08-03. StarCraft II: Starter Edition. ''Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2011-08-03. Free to Play Model StarCraft II adopted a free to play model in November, 2017. It was anticipated that players new to the game would start with the campaign, then transition to Co-op Missions, then transition to Versus (under the premise that each transition would give the player a rise in difficulty). Analysis by Blizzard showed that this wasn't the case though, and there was no overall pattern of player preference as far as transitions went.2017-11-04, BlizzCon 2017: Developer Interview StarCraft 2 Game Producer Tim Ismay. YouTube, accessed on 2017-11-06 Storyline The generalities of the overall story were present before the decision was made to extend it over a trilogy. The trilogy's arc was designed by Chris Metzen, James Waugh, and Jason Huck. The larger points were agreed on and were given to the design team.2015-06-26, Blizzard's Secrets of Storytelling in StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void. GameSpot, accessed on 2015-06-28 One of the aspirations was the game was to do something different from StarCraft I, namely the briefing screen format. Metzen pushed for the game to be a "living" one. That the storyline was split over three games was a result of the sprawling narrative that was envisioned.2015-11-06, STARCRAFT: THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. Polygon, accessed on 2015-11-18 The United Earth Directorate was originally going to play a significant role in the game, where the conflict between the terrans, zerg, and protoss, would spiral back to Earth, where the zerg would invade. But as the campaign developed, a number of things shifted, and this plan got scaled back. Furthermore, it was found that the conflict between the Terran Dominion and Raynor's Raiders was sufficient to define Wings of Liberty, without the need to bring in the UED.IGN. 2016-03-30. Celebrating 20 Years of Starcraft: An Interview with Starcraft's Creators IGN.com. Accessed 2016-03-30. Developers The lead designer for StarCraft II was Dustin Browder.2007-05-19. Gameplay Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12. The team devoted to StarCraft II consisted of only about 40 developers in 2008, including twelve people who worked on the original StarCraft.Zerg Announcement Interview (translated). StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2008-03-10. As of 2008, the team consisted of four or five managers, 12-14 programmers, 8-10 artists and the rest consist of designers. It has its own internal leadership structure.Frank Pearce, Bob Colayco, Adam Doree. 2008-09-11. Interview: Blizzard Co-founder Frank Pearce. Kikizo. Accessed 2008-09-19. A "couple" of ex-progamers are part of the team, working on balance issues such as mutalisk micromanagement and creating strategies against each other. By June 2009 the team had expanded to about 50 membersJune 25, 2009. David Kim Interview. StarCraft Zone. Accessed 2009-11-06. and by August it had expanded to 60 members.Dustin Browder et al. 2009-09-04. BlizzCon 2009 StarCraft 2 Fansite Q&A - Part 2/5. Youtube. Accessed 2009-10-07. As of September 2009 StarCraft II has 58 unique voice actors. Some play more than one role.Karune. 2009-09-30. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 53. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-09-30. Patches Regional Differences As of July 18, 2011, six regions were merged into three: North and Latin America, Taiwan and Korea, and Russia and Europe.Blizzard Entertainment. 2011-07-11. Coming Soon: StarCraft II Region Linking. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2011-07-13. StarCraft II has both download and subscription models in Russia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Players can either download the entire version of the game, or pay a reduced price (about half), which offers gameplay for 60 days. Players could then pay another fee for more gameplay.David Hinkle. 2010-05-07. Starcraft 2 offering subscription plans in Latin America, Asia and Russia. Joystiq. Accessed 2010-06-28. South Korean gamers are be able to play three versions of the game. The full game can be purchased for 69,000 won, but a monthly and daily pass version of the game are available (the game would be unlocked with purchased passes). South Korean players who own a World of Warcraft account can play StarCraft II for free without purchasing passes.Cam Shea. 2010-06-27. Koreans Get StarCraft II For Free! IGN. Accessed 2010-06-28. Players can play at PC baangs for a low price.Bandreus. 2010-06-26. Korean Event Aftermaths, Beta Phase 2 and LAN play. INC.Gamers. Accessed 2010-06-28. In China, StarCraft II's open beta started on March 29, 2011Medievaldragon. 2011-03-29. StarCraft II Open Beta Testing Begins in Mainland China. Blizzplanet. Accessed 2011-03-29. for free. Chinese StarCraft II players pays 20 yuan (approximately $3) per month.Medievaldragon. 2011-03-18. NetEase Announces StarCraft II Open Beta in China Starts March.29.2011. Blizzplanet. Accessed 2011-03-19. Trailers, Demonstrations & Other Videos IPL 2012 Starcraft 2 at IPL 2012 - Leenock vs Apocalypse - Game 1|Leenock vs Apocalypse - Game 1 Starcraft 2 at IPL 2012 - Leenock vs Apocalypse - Game 2|Leenock vs Apocalypse - Game 2 Starcraft 2 at IPL 2012 - Leenock vs Apocalypse - Game 3|Leenock vs Apocalypse - Game 3 Official Videos The official videos featured Blizzard Entertainment employees making official announcements. Most are stored on the official website for StarCraft II, established and maintained by Blizzard Entertainment. WWI 2007 Videos * First artwork trailer, showing a large number of scanned concept art drawings/paintings for StarCraft II and another protoss/terran battle on a different map than the first official gameplay demo video.2007-05-19. Artwork Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12. * First cinematic trailer, introducing Tychus Findlay and showing in detail the involved, robotic process of installing Tychus Findlay's marine armor.2007-05-19. Cinematic Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12. * First official gameplay demo, giving a tour by means of a video recorded from an apparently mission-like game from the protoss view point that demonstrates and describes the protoss warp gate ability, updated zealot, the new immortal, the new terran reaper, the (now renamed) phase prism, the stalker, the new zerg nydus worm and classic zerglings, the ability to combine phase prisms and warp gate ability to create a significant force anywhere on the map, massive new colossus units, the ability for classic zerglings to mutate into new banelings, the classic mutalisks, new Phoenix, classic terran battlecruiser, new (now renamed) warp ray, and the "ultimate" unit of StarCraft II: the mothership. It finished with a terran/protoss brawl which ended with three ghosts each launching a nuke that wiped out the entirety of the protoss and terran forces involved in the brawl (with the exception of the ghosts) and then zerglings killed the ghosts and forming up the letters 'GG' as they mutated into banelings. BlizzCon 2007 Videos Blizzard Entertainment showcased several videos at BlizzCon 2007. *'Terran Gameplay Trailer:' Shown at BlizzCon 2007, this video demonstrated terran units such as the Banshee, ghost and Thor.2007-09-13. Gameplay Video - Terran. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-14. *'Terran Campaign Trailer:' Also shown at BlizzCon, this video demonstrated some of the mechanics behind the new terran campaign, as well as discussions between Jim Raynor and other characters.2007-08-03. StarCraft II Single-Player Campaign BlizzCon Preview. Gamespot. Accessed 2007-08-07. *'Art Video:' A discussion featuring the artwork of StarCraft II.2007-08-03. BlizzCon StarCraft art/graphics panel discussion The Unofficial Starcraft 2 Forums @ IncGamers Accessed 2007-08-07. *'Lore Video:' Chris Metzen and Andy Chambers discussed the lore of the StarCraft universe. March 2008 Videos Blizzard Entertainment held a press event in March 2008 to showcase the zerg. *'Zerg Reveal Trailer:' At the event, Blizzard Entertainment showed a video featuring the zerg including a voice over.2008-03-18. Zerg Reveal Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-03-21. WWI 2008 Blizzard Entertainment hosted the World Wide Invitational in June 28 to 29, 2008. Live streaming video of panels and games were shown.2008-06-28. Live Video Streams. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-06-28. BlizzCon 2008 At BlizzCon 2008, Blizzard showed several videos, including the first minutes of the StarCraft II cinematic, The Prophecy. At the time, it may have been the game's opening cinematic.2008-10-11. Starcraft II: BlizzCon 08: Opening Cinematic Teaser (CAM). Gametrailers. Accessed 2008-10-11. Commercials Ghosts of the Past Trivia According to a poll conducted by Blizzard, StarCraft II players' primary interest in the game can be broken down as follows (as of January 2017): *Versus: 43% *Campaign: 36% *Co-op: 16% *Arcade: 5%2017-01-25, StarCraft on Twitter. Twitter, accessed on 2017-30-01 References External links * [http://www.starcraft2.com/ Official StarCraft II website] * [http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/ Original StarCraft II website] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft_II StarCraft II at Wikipedia] * Blizzard Artwork Trailer (YouTube) * [http://media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/imgs_1.html Gameplay screenshots of StarCraft II] courtesy IGN * Order Starcraft II @ Amazon * StarCraft II GPU and CPU Performance Report es:StarCraft II StarCraft II Category:Games